We’ve updated our Terms of Use to reflect our new entity name and address. You can review the changes here.
We’ve updated our Terms of Use. You can review the changes here.

the Dirt Beyond the Paling

from Hush Hush by Stranger Killings

/
  • Streaming + Download

    Includes high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more. Paying supporters also get unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app.
    Purchasable with gift card

      name your price

     

lyrics

Dirt Beyond the Paling


We lived among the heathen trees
I lent my bed to rats
I hexed my tongue
And ripped the wings
Right off my sallow back

We lived among the heathen trees
There was no law to bind us
I hid my daughter far away
Where judgement never found us

I burned up all her dresses
And she went wild in the wood
She was a pale and naked hearse
For my fear of man and god
I wore her first blood on my cheek
And I knew that she was ready
All I could do was hold my breath
To keep my fingers steady

CHORUS:
This place might be a righteous hell
If I could only set the swamps alight
And this place might have been a piece of heaven
If the light weren’t always failing
I dug our graves a mile deep
And washed my hands
In the dirt beyond the paling

We lived among the heathen trees
I spent her innocence like a bullet
In the head of my sunken mare
She bore my burdens lovingly
With brambles in her hair
I spent my seed upon my seed
And grew horror after horror
There were no prayers on the wind
That whipped across her belly
Twenty faces smashed by man
Who hid away from god

One by one,
We took their hands
And led them to the water
And in baptismal grace
We held their broken faces under water
Never again in dismal grace
To break the surface of the water

CHORUS:
This place might be a righteous hell
If I could only set the swamps alight
And this place might have been a piece of heaven
If the light weren’t always failing
I dug their graves a mile deep
And washed my hands
In the dirt beyond the paling

Go now away
My crooked law can’t bind you
Go now away
And maybe god will find you
With each horror lost
Each perversion freed
A piece of her I murdered
So she left my crooked way
She haunted the heathen trees by night
And hid fully from the day

By moonlight she trod the wicked night
And her torment never softened
Comfort one could not expect
For a mother who gave birth to twenty coffins

Vespers and devotions
She gave into the night
I found her early the next day
It was a dreadful sight
The birds all sang out clean and sweet
From the branches of the heathen trees
Where my lovely daughter swung
In the gentle summer breeze

credits

from Hush Hush, released February 14, 2016

license

all rights reserved

tags

about

Stranger Killings Portland, Oregon

contact / help

Contact Stranger Killings

Streaming and
Download help

Report this track or account

Stranger Killings recommends:

If you like Stranger Killings, you may also like: